Another Brand in the Schrade/Walden/Ulster/Imperial/etc/etc?

orvet

orvet

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Oct 11, 2005
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Codger has had us guessing by hinting at another brand of knives related to the Schrade/Imperial/Ulster/etc family. I think I may have uncovered what he is talking about.

Today I was in the NW Knives & Collectibles store in Salem, OR. Some of you may know of them, they sell regularly on ebay. They are closing their Salem store and moving the merchandise to their store in Portland, OR. I went in to say "Bye" to Bob Steel, the manager (great name for a knife shop manager huh?). Since most of their stock has already been moved to Portland, and I had already gotten what I wanted, there wasn't much to look at. So, I looked at the books they had left. Among the books that were left was a book of photocopies of old knife catalogs bound with a plastic comb binding. The pages were obvious photo copies. There is no publisher or author listed, just a table of contents. The section I found so interesting was the section entitled; "WINCHESTER-SIMMONS COMPANY / CATALOG OF 1924 / Knives by Keen Kutter." What do you think I found???:eek:

Here is a scan of the first page of the WINCHESTER-SIMMONS COMPANY CATALOG OF 1924



So Codger..........is this the company you were talking about, Keen Kutter?

Dale
 
I thought when Simmons made Keen Cutter, it was out of St. Louis, MO. Did schrade buy them out and move the name to New York?
 
Were there any dates on the material, Dale??
p.s. I haven't forgotten that Warren whittling knife!
 
Good try guys. Actually, in 1902 Walden Knife Company sold to E.C. Simmons and moved to New Haven CT. In 1939, Simmons Hardware declared bankruptcy, then in 1940, Shapleigh Hardware Company purchased all the assets of Simmons Hardware. The trademarked Simmons lines continued to be marketed by Shapleigh until its closing in the early 1960's. Imperial did acquire the Diamond-Edge trademark from closed Shapleigh Hardware Company in 1960. From what I can tell, today Val-Test owns the rights to the Keen Kutter brand.

We are having T-storms here today so work doesn't look too promising. Maybe I'll be able to give you some of the sparse information I have found on the "fifth element" of the Imperial Knife Associated Companies.



Codger
 
Finding definitive information on the fifth IKAC company has not been easy. Very little in the way of records of this short lived enterprise have survived the years, except for some obscure mentions in old letters, and a couple of ad pages. I was able to locate a complete display on eBay, but it sold for much more than my meager advertising budget allowed.

As the story related by Albert Baer goes, Tom Dunlap, the head of Sears hardware department under Author Barrows, came to him with a request after a fruitless search for a supplier of safety razor blades. To succinctly quote Mr. Baer’s remembrance of Dunlap’s words,

“One day, he called me on the telephone and asked me to meet him at the airport. He was going to make a tour to choose a supplier of razor blades. He visited all the razor blade factories and then snapped at me, ''Why the hell don't you make blades for us.” I wondered why not, and Sears became a 25% partner in Vulcan. Tom felt he wanted razor blades as a drawing card for customers and at the very beginning said, "We're not trying to make money on razor blades.”
(remember this last line)

Thus, Vulcan Razor Blade Corporation of Maplewood, New Jersey was born. (Another source, a letter from one of the Kastor brothers mentions the factory being in Newark, N.J. in 1943) The stainless razor blades were sold through Sears with the Craftsman name, and also by Baer under the Vulcan name, and also apparently through Imperial under the Hammer Brand logo with a inexpensive bonus two blade stainless pen knife.

Sears bought the razor blades from Vulcan at 1 ½ cents a blade, but were billed at 2 ½ cents a blade, the difference being place in a co-op kitty for advertising, which was spent as quickly as it accumulated, even with millions of blades being sold to Sears. Blades were sent to all the Sears stockholders with their dividend checks, bragging about the quality of the new Craftsman stainless blades.

Disaster struck with a late, 2 A.M. call from Tom Dunlap.to Albert Baer. “...What in for Christ's sake hell has Tuerff done to louse up our blades?!!. General Wood called me from Arizona to say that the bathrooms of America are red with the blood of the people who cut themselves with Craftsman blades!!!”.

According to Albert’s version, Tuerff reported to him that their lubricant supplier, Sun Oil Company, had adulterated their blade preservative with something that caused the blades to corrode. They had millions of blades in the hands of customers all over America, so what could they do but have a mass recall? This presented a large problem because the one cent per blade put into the advertising kitty was gone and Vulcan didn't have it. Albert landed in Chicago to talk the problem over with "Uncle Tom".

"Tom" I said, "we've accomplished our purpose in razor blades.” He looked at me as though I were crazy and said "What in the hell do you mean?" 'When we started in the business, Tom, you said you didn't want to make money with razor blades. We have accomplished our purpose." He let out a screaming guffaw and shouted "G** dammit to hell. You're right,” and then boomed "Miss Holub, make out a check to Vulcan from the Central Tools Kitty for $153,000 and give it to Albert." No one would believe, until they saw the check, what had transpired. We finally licked the razor blade problem, made money and bought out Sears' interest, and gave them a substantial profit."

Mr Levine relates that in an interview with Mr. Baer in later years, he mentioned that they had tried to get into the razor blade business, but were forced via dirty dealings by a competator to close up the company. I am still conducting interviews looking for more specifics, maybe even dates and pictures of the operation. But here you have the ...rest of the story. A Baer tale of the fifth element!



By the way, does this guy look vaguely familiar?


Codger
 
Interesting info Codger, Thanks. I wonder how many other ventures (even aborted ones) Albert was involved in? It has been my experience that entrepreneurial types are often looking for new ventures.

Dale
 
Great piece of mostly-forgotten history, Codg...

Everyone remembers Remington and Wilkinson-sword, not Vulcan...

Thanks for sharing.

Glenn
 
orvet said:
...I wonder how many other ventures (even aborted ones) Albert was involved in?...

Dale
Click to expand...

Well, how about the electric can openers, electric knives, I've mentioned the extensive stainless tableware business haven't I? Yeah, 'Ol' Uncle Tom' got him hooked up in that one too, and it proved one of the most longlasting and successful. How about the back-door importation of injection molding machines and the connection to Foster Grant? How they sidestepped the largest and most profitable U.S. plastics conglamorate to mold their own knife handles, and eventually supply injection powders to that very conglomerate? Or maybe the Imperial Mexico venture. I've shown knives from that one. Some day I'll work up a rant on the Sears / Baer connection, bingo for a new Cadillac, chicanery and double dealings from European affiliates, the woman behind the man, Helene Baer who was near worshipped in a recovering Japan, authoress, humanitarian, educator.

Indeed an interesting and complex man who inspired a great deal of faithfulness from his customers, creativity from his workers, admiration from his friends and peers, and angst from his competition.

Codger
 
Note that when I first alluded to Vulcan, I did not say it was a knife manufacturer. Yes, it was a bit sneaky of me, and it did give me time to research and write. I located an example too, though it sold for much more than my research budget allowed. Still, it's existance proves the brochures and references I found, even if I cannot dissect it for obscure information. You might keep your eyes open for single packs, used or not. I know I will.



Codger
 
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